Day 197 Bellingen Friday 21st December 2012

Evening folks,
A slightly cooler and less buggy evening tonight. It actually cooled off a bit overnight and was quite pleasant in the Yurt when we awoke. After a leisurely breakfast we started pottering, Susan deseedheading (is that a word) some grass and me chopping up a fallen acacia with my chainsaw. I was almost finished when the cutting became much slower. After resharpening my chain and comparing it to the new looks like it is worn out. Susan went on to some sweeping, poisoning weeds with round up and doing something with some rotten timber on the back step. I went back to my favourite, lantana cutting and swabbing, regrowth in areas I previously worked in. A change of technique and I was dabbing them with round up. To complete the story I was then pulling them up out of the ground. I have a few areas to go back to tomorrow where there is some regrowth of previous cut and swabs I have done.

This is an Orioles nest. I tried for a picture of the bird but none were up to my mediocre standard. Try again tomorrow

After showers and a quick lunch we headed to Coffs Harbour since Ii had discovered the solar shop I previously visited had a controller I wanted in stock. They had 4pm as a winter closing time on their web page so I rang to check. After the usual battle with Optus not working I elicited a "The boss will probably close at 3 today", presumably because they were on a break until Jan 2nd. We arrived at 5 past 3 and the door was locked. Strike 3 for them. I dropped Susan off at the big shopping centre so she could visit Supre and then journeyed to find Jaycar for a browse. Our other mission was Bunnings which for some reason couldn't be found on our wonderful GPS which said the nearest one was 91km away at Kempsey. With directions from Jaycar we found Bunnings where the plaque on the door declared it was opened in '91 so it isn't exactly too new for the mapping! Susan had success purchasing the wood stain for the boys. We returned home although I diverted into Bellingen to purchased discount chocolate from the IGA plus more insect repellent.

We had a large band for tea tonight with the three guys who live here, Judy and Jude who are visiting plus Libby and Gary and their son Tom. Home made burgers which were delicious.

Half an hour to go until midnight and no sign of the world ending yet. The only "disastrous " things that occurred today were the latch springing off the fridge, easily replaced and the little fridge thermometer reading crazily high indicative of a broken wore, probably repairable. Si i guess the world will spin on for a few more years yet.

Just had a lovely short shower of rain to cool things off nicely for sleeping.

night folks

Simon